


Who is the lamb and who is the knife

by toughluckbuddy



Series: Strangeness & Charm [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen, Pre-Slash, Seven Swordsmen - Freeform, Village Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-07 20:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19092790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toughluckbuddy/pseuds/toughluckbuddy
Summary: They had stopped in a clearing for the night and Hinata suddenly saw something move from the corner of her eyes.





	Who is the lamb and who is the knife

**Author's Note:**

> For the rarepair bingo prompts : different village of origin - Sakura - Hinata
> 
> Title from Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by Florence & the Machine

They had stopped in a clearing for the night and Hinata suddenly saw something move from the corner of her eyes.

“Kakashi sensei,” she whispered and he raised his head to look at her with his one good eye. “I think someone’s there.”

“Very good Hinata!” He was looking inappropriately pleased about the potentially dangerous situation. “I was waiting for you to pick up on it. She’s been following us since the land of Waves.” He put his hand on the hilt of one of his swords, planted in the ground next to him, and called out “You can come out now!”

They heard a muffled curse and saw a rustle in the branches, and a small form jumped down from above and landed a few meters away from their stuff. The girl standing in front of them couldn’t have been much older than Hinata, and she looked like she hadn’t had a good meal or a good night sleep in a while. She had pink hair, tattered clothes and a fierce look, and when she bared her teeth at them, Hinata could see they were pointy and sharp looking, just like those she knew her sensei hid beneath his mask.

“How did you know I was there?” she asked. Her voice was harsh and she wasn’t looking at Hinata, just at Kakashi.

“You’re a good tracker, but you’re bad at hiding,” said Kakashi, shrugging. “Do you want some food?” He indicated the meal they were eating.

She couldn’t help the look of surprise and longing that passed on her face for half a second, and this time she did look at Hinata, though very furtively.

“I don’t want to _eat_ ,” she said in an offended tone, “I want that sword you stole!”

“Kakashi sensei didn’t steal any sword!” Hinata heard herself say, and though she was surprised at her own daring, she continued. “Kiba _chose_ him, and they’re his!”

He had explained to her that that was why they couldn’t go back to Kiri for the time being, and even if she knew he wasn’t telling the whole truth – he never was – and had an inkling about where they were going and why, she had seen him fight with the swords enough times by now to know that they belonged to him at least as much as he belonged to them.

The girl looked confused and pissed off and Kakashi said “You’re not talking about those swords, are you?” in that knowing voice of his.

“I’m talking about Kabutowari! I know you stole it, and it’s _mine_!”

The girl threw herself at Kakashi and Hinata reacted on instinct. She wasn’t any good with sword, wasn’t particularly brave or assertive, but there was a reason why Kakashi had taken a look at her on that dirty corner street and extended his hand for her to take.

The girl smashed into her ice mirror so hard that it almost cracked. She fell and didn’t get up.

“You stole _another_ sword?” Hinata asked, and he said “Well.”

***

Her head hurt so bad Sakura didn’t even want to be alive anymore. She could hear whispered conversations in between her own groans of pain, and someone put something wet on her forehead that made her feel a little bit better. She tried opening her eyes.

It was pretty dark now, the sky having set while she was unconscious. They were both standing above her, looking at her with mild disinterest – Hatake – and with obvious concern – the short-haired girl who was inexplicably travelling with him.

“Don’t get up too fast!” said the girl. She was the one who had knocked her out, somehow, though Sakura couldn’t explain how she had done it. She remembered something cold?

“How did you do that?” asked Sakura. She was feeling groggy and not quite right in the head, like she was forgetting something important.

“Hinata here has very special talents!” said Hatake and the girl – Hinata – blushed. She was pretty cute.

Then she glimpsed one of the thunderswords at Hatake’s waist and she scrambled up as quickly as she could, her head spinning wildly, her limbs trembling. She was here for the sword, not for the girl!

“The sword! I’ll fight you for it!” she said to Hatake, and though she knew she was an incoherent, probably concussed and incompetent child, his laughter still stung.

“How about you sit back down, eat something, and I’ll let you explain why you need it so much,” said Hatake.

This sounded so much more tempting than taking a beating that she took one look at Hinata – watching her with a mix of wariness and pity – and said “I’ll take it even if you don’t want to give it to me,” before relenting.

She was wolfing down her second bowl of rice – overcooked, bland, the best thing she had eaten in days – when she raised her head from the food and saw Hatake looking at her expectantly. She felt less inclined to strangle him now that she wasn’t desperately hungry anymore.

“Alright so… no one officially knows how the Seven Swordsmen died right?” she started, and though Hatake looked extremely shifty at that, she continued. “All we know is that all of a sudden, that piece of shit Danzo is in possession of all their swords…”

“That’s not a very nice way to talk about your Mizukage,” noted Hatake, but he didn’t seem too bothered about it. Hinata giggled. It was a nice sound.

“Isn’t he your Mizukage too?” she asked, and he gave a sharp, cold laugh, but didn’t answer. “Anyway, I was going to steal Rin’s sword back, but you beat me to it. You weren’t discreet about it, by the way. Everyone knows you did it.” He probably didn’t care though. After all, he was the strongest swordsman alive now, and he apparently had a secret weapon with pretty eyes on his side too.

“Did you know Rin?” he asked, and she could tell he was only playing at casual now, his eye narrowed.

“I didn’t get a chance to,” she said, the familiar rage now building up in her again. “She didn’t know I existed but… well, I’m her half-sister. I was hoping to become her apprentice and…”

“I thought Rin was an orphan,” said Hatake, his voice weirdly toneless.

“Yeah, my dad’s an asshole.”

They both stayed silent for a while.

“We should sleep,” said Hinata suddenly, and they both looked up at her. “You hurt your head pretty bad, um…”

“Sakura,” said Sakura, and Hinata nodded.

“You should get some rest. And you Sensei, need some time to think things over.”

“I do?” said Hatake.

“I still want the sword,” said Sakura.

“And I’m still not sure I want to give it to you,” said Hatake.

Hinata shrugged like it wasn’t her problem, though she appeared very uncomfortable doing so. “I think you’ve got the same goal. People who want the same things should stick together.” She pointedly looked at Sakura and said “Danzo will be in Konoha for the jounin exam.” Her smile wasn’t so cute anymore, and Sakura was pretty sure she was developing a crush.

Hatake looked both shocked that she seemed to know his plan and scandalized that she would divulge it to a stranger.

Later, when Hatake had decided to take first watch and Sakura was lying down next to Hinata, Hinata turned to face her. Her eyes were really big from up close.

“I’m pretty sure he’s going to give you the sword,” she whispered, and though Hatake cleared his throat pointedly to show that he had heard, Sakura couldn’t help but smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Some background notes on the swordsmen that didn’t make it into the fic:  
> • the Seven Swordsmen were Minato, Kushina, Obito, Rin and… I guess three other people less important to Kakashi?  
> • Danzo had them assassinated because Minato was planning a coup. Kakashi was still Minato’s apprentice when he died, so he wasn’t officially part of the Swordsmen.  
> • Minato had Kiba (which is why Kakashi took them), Rin had Kabutowari, Obito had Samehada (he’s actually still alive and hiding inside the sword, Kisame-style), and Kushina had Shibuki.


End file.
